chelsea didn't know it yet, but the next time she saw ezra was the beginning to a very confusing, very stressful week. a week that only foreshadowed what struggles chelsea would be forced to face afterwards.
"so, what kind of person puts that much effort into their appearance in this kind of weather?" ezra, smirking, gestured to the window, which now displayed a more calmed down version of what the two teens were met with last time they were sitting in each other's presence.
"well, if you must know, i have to sit through family dinner tonight." chelsea spoke, only slightly confused at how good ezra was at picking up when she changed her usual makeup look even slightly, since that's all she had done for the occasion.
"oh, that's a shame. i thought you'd done that for me." ezra rested his head on his arm, waiting for the inevitable insult to come from the girl sitting across from him.
"in your dreams, douchebag."
the two had just accepted by now that it was normal for them to continuously insult each other as a form of communication, rather than speak nicely like normal humans.
"right. so, a family dinner, why?" he questioned as though he'd never heard of such a thing.
"again, if you must know, my cousin just got accepted into her dream college. it's a big deal, apparently." Chelsea explained, the words only dimming her mood as she was reminded of what her evening would hold.
"oh, i'm sensing a little hostility, huh?" Ezra brought his cup of coffee to his mouth as though he were a mother at a book club, ready to listen to some upper-class lady bitch about her neighbour. at least, that's what Chelsea thought.
"i just don't see why she's so great, that's all." she rolled her eyes, an action that caused Ezra to shake his head in a disapproving manner.
"you can strain your eyes from rolling them too much, you know?" he pushed his hair back with his hand, only for it to fall loosely onto his forehead again, a place his black locks seemed to inhabit today, despite the relentless effort ezra put into pushing it back every five minutes, an action he had grown unaware of doing half the time.
his hands served as slaves to the overgrown black locks, constantly pushing them back on his forehead only for them to fall loosely down again. chelsea found it hilarious.
"i should probably stop hanging around you, then." chelsea smirked, knowing she had probably dampened any extra confidence ezra had going on today; they had barely insulted each other as of lately, something that had chelsea growing increasingly both weirded out and.. relieved by.
relieved?
that was a feeling chelsea thought she found to be quite foreign to her when around ezra, but funnily enough, the boy had been giving her more of a sense of relief every time she saw him in the cafe, recently. it was odd, because she was supposed to hate him.
perhaps it was the fact that reality always seemed a little bit altered in the cafe on the corner of ivy street, perhaps everybody seemed a little nicer than they actually were when you only talked to them from the other side of a table.
perhaps chelsea liked ezra more than she thought she did.
+
"so what do you want to be when you're older, chelsea?"
that was the question chelsea hated, a question she hated even more when it came from the mouth of her aunt, who had a habit of speaking to her like a baby.
chelsea breaks out into a smile, not a genuine one, but a forced one; she didn't want to get in trouble for being impolite towards guests, even if she couldn't care less what they thought of her.
"i'm not really sure, yet. i like writing."
her aunt purses her lips disapprovingly, a sly gesture that chelsea's parents don't pick up on. chelsea knows she shouldn't be surprised, her parents aren't the observative type, really.
"so you want to be an author?" her uncle chimes in, his gaze is set on chelsea and his eyes are squinted naturally and he looks like he's interrogating her, rather than enjoying a family dinner with his niece.
"yeah, i think so. maybe." she responds, her tone just as unsure as her uncles gaze.
"oh, well, you'd better be a good writer, then. only the best make it out there, you know." he says, and chelsea isn't sure whether that's his version of a pep talk, or if he truly realises how much of a dick he's being, but doesn't care anyway. chelsea decides it's probably the ladder.
as her uncles turns back to her parents, chelsea's eyes go fixed on her cup in front of her, she notices a single drop of water slide down the side of the glass, trailing all the way down to the wooden dinner table that her father had scored for half price last summer.
she thinks about her uncle, and what a complete asshole he is. she liked her other uncle better, uncle max. he lived in a caravan and didn't have a job, but he was always nice to chelsea, and that's what mattered more to her.
the sound of chelsea's cousin talking about her college choice soon becomes background noise to her as her mind drifts to ezra; as it drifts to their conversations earlier that day, to how his hair looked and even to how his eyes would close when he laughed at chelsea's attempt of a joke.
"i haven't seen chelsea around the house much lately, actually," chelsea is drawn back to her reality that is the family dinner when her brother speaks her name, "where have you been going lately, chelsea?" he directs the conversation back to her, obviously trying to escape an interrogation from their uncle.
"reading, ah, outdoors." she tries her best to hide how uncomfortable, though she doesn't even know why she feels uncomfortable in the first place. it was true, she had been leaving the house to read.
"i bet you're actually meeting up with a boy." her brother could never told back from teasing his little sister, even when their family were present.
"Kenny, stop it!" their mother scolds, her glass held so tightly in her hand that chelsea think it may crack, even.
though, she doesn't care if her brother tries teasing her, or if her mother accidentally breaks one of her favourite glasses, because she had an indescribable feeling welling up inside her, slowly but surely growing.
the feeling that both made the edges of chelsea's mouth twitch upwards, and her stomach tighten with unease.
-
this wasn't very good, but i wanted to get a chapter up, hence this.
happy 2017!! i'm so happy that, that horrible year is finally over.
i hope you all have a great year!! thank u so much 4 reading
YOU ARE READING
CONSTANT HEADACHE ; EZRA MILLER
Fanfiction'i'm just a constant headache, a dead pet device you hang me up unfinished with the better part of me no longer mine.' » if there was one thing that ezra and chelsea could agree on, it was that they barely ever agreed at all.
